Questions about swath grazing?

[smcgrath76]

gaucho brings up a good point. Perhaps a
better solution is to rent the land out
for a lesser price and get the renter to
run a jones buncher of likewise, and graze
your cows on the aftermath of crop
production.

[BTOfarmallll]

Best idea yet since I am a genius. Grow corn fer silage on the land, duh. We'll say 10 MT yeild per acre on the low end X 2204.62 lbs = 22046.20 lbs of silage per acre. Should be able to push 15 MT plus per acre in the Red Deer area with good management & Pourin the nutrients to er'. Now that you know what I just told you, plug in yer numbers of how many lbs per day yer gon feed per cow, acres needed, number of head, etc. Should be able to find a guy out that way to put it all up fer you fer $1000 - $1200 an hour & within a day all yer feed is made, go to the beach all summer. That Simple.......

[greybeard]

For me the above discussion confirms that even at today's improved prices for cattle grain will continue to bump cattle out to areas that are to risky for grain production. This is happening world wide.
Seems to point to smaller numbers in traditional production areas.

[smcgrath76]

A couple of thoughts...
We don't see a lot of waste with swath
grazing, however it does require fencing
and some effort. We are running about
20 minutes of work, once a week. We
feel this is much less than if we were
to feed cattle and start a tractor every
day. This needs to be penciled in.
Land will produce what it produces
whether you grow it and bale it, or grow
it and graze it in place. Crop and
variety choices, as well as agronomics
will affect the overall production.
How that crop is harvested/marketed is
also up for grabs.
For some that alternative to swath
grazing is to sell a cash crop and buy
feed, or to bunch crop aftermath, or to
feed in confinement. Just be fair with
your costs. If you have cows anyway,
the opportunity costs (eg: renting land
out) might determine if they are a good
enterprise, but this doesn't change the
fact that you need to feed those cattle
the most cost effective way possible.
If you own the land $80 per acre rent is
an economic cost, but not specifically a
cash cost. Assets used in production
should be valued at cost for accounting
purposes, but obviously should be valued
differently for decision making.
Costs we don't have with swath grazing
are:
feeding labour and equipment (greatly
reduced)
corral cleaning
fertilizer (longer term benefit)
baling
hauling
yardage (greatly reduced)

Winter grazing is a very different way
of doing things for most people
(whatever crop they are grazing), but
there can be big time cost savings with
no impact on animal performance.

[wilagro]

Last winter one of my neighbours tried his usual swath grazing on his sandy farm. Even with a 28 foot swath it was terribly scanty and when the snows came and the cattle couldn't find the swathes...he ended up feeding bales anyway. If the cows can't find the swath what is the point in wasting good feed?

Mother nature can be a cruel teacher sometimes.

[kato]

We figure we save a couple of thousand dollars a year on fuel by grazing corn. Our feeling is that why should we pay someone to cut it and haul it to the yard, and then pay for fuel to feed them, and fertilizer for the corn. We'd rather let the cows go and get their own darn corn, and then they can leave a pile of free fertilizer right out there in the field while they are at it.

We still start calving at the beginning of February, just like we always have, but our cows only actually spend Feb to mid April in the yard, 8 weeks total. Best of both worlds, in our situation. The corn carries them from the end of October, when they come home from pasture, right up to a week or so before calving.

[farmers_son]

I found this link:

Swath Grazing in Western Canada An Introduction
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex9239!OpenDocument&Click=

Research at Lacombe showed barley swath grazing averaged 2.47 cows per acre over a period of 7 years. The swath grazing had a net advantage of $134 per acre over conventional baling green feed with subsequent winter feeding in a yard.

[per]

There are better grains to seed than straight barley for the job as well. When you go to swath it and it is too light to make a decent windrow (never really happened here yet) then a new plan like baling needs to take over. There are no wrong questions, just bad decisions. It is hard however to get it right all the time. We ran into conditions this year not encountered and windrowed with to small of a unit resulting in mechanically feeding bales for much of the winter. That is why a plan B needs to be available. If I always fed bales then plan A would have worked.